MIA

The teevee pundits are guessing what the House Republicans will do about the upcoming debt ceiling fight. But there is no point in speculating; we know, in general, what they will do. They will do the most damnfool stupid thing that could possibly be done, whatever that is.

“Leverage” only works against rational people. A large number of House Republicans aren’t just “nihilists,” willing to blow up the economy to get what they want, they’re plain morons who have impossible and horrible goals and no clue whatsoever how to reach them.

Yeah, pretty much. At The Atlantic, Molly Ball interviews recently retired Rep. Steve LaTourette, R-Ohio, and even he admits there’s way too much stupid among the House Republicans.

I don’t know what their objective is. If it was to deny the speakership to Boehner and hand it to Mrs. Pelosi, I don’t know how their cause would have been furthered. If it’s to force the vote to a second ballot to make some demands, well, who the hell do these people think they are? Twelve out of 233, and they’re making demands? That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.

I have to say that handing the speakership to Nancy Pelosi as a strategy among the baggers (assuming it was a strategy; they may be too stupid to comprehend the meaning of “consequence”) reminds me of the “progressives” who wanted Mitt Romney to win to punish President Obama and “send a message.” Stupid is not exclusive to the Right. But the Stupid Caucus among House Republicans is taking Stupid to new levels. For example …

You look at the very beginning of the last Congress, H.R. 1, the omnibus, there were hundreds of amendments from the stupid to the sublime. One was offered to defund the president’s teleprompter. Another was to defund the electrical upgrades needed to bring the White House up to code. But Boehner’s deal was, OK, go for it, let people participate. There was an expectation that, given the opportunity to improve the bill, they would then vote for the bill. But beginning with that bill there have been 20 to 50 members who will make adjustments to the bill that guarantee you’re not going to get one Democrat to vote for it, and then they still vote against the bill themselves and deny Boehner the 218 votes he needs to bargain with.

Some of what LaTourette says in the interview is bull, but one gets the impression that even he is disgusted with the degree of Stupid among House Republicans.

Back to Alex Pareene, who describes the failed “coup” against John Boehner:

If, say, Eric Cantor had actually wanted the job, he could’ve organized the coup and succeeded. But Eric Cantor didn’t want the job. The bigger problem, then, was a lack of intelligence. The crazy caucus failed spectacularly at all aspects of the attempted conspiracy, from planning to execution. They waited until the last minute to approach potential allies, failed to count their own votes correctly, and didn’t even all figure out who they were supposed to vote for instead. Their plan was apparently to embarrass Boehner into resigning, in favor of … someone to be decided later. Candidates voted for by plotters included departing Rep. Allen West and former Comptroller David Walker, who are basically the opposites of one another.

10 Comments

There’s no mystery here…They’re Baggers..what more can be said? It’s in the nature of the beast.

Yankee Doodle went to town riding on his pony…I mean, Allen West?, Really..Isn’t it obvious that anybody who rallies under the Teabagger banner has some sort of disconnect with reality.. I enjoy a good fantasy myself, but I’m always mindful that I’m engaging in a fantasy, and that I can’t exercise my fantasy out in public like these teabagger are doing.

Hmm, doesn’t the House have to have a Dem majority again, for that to happen? For Baggers, who have zero foresight, 2014 is a really really really long game. Or does Eric Cantor look that much like Nancy Pelosi these days?

Joan – I understand there are no restrictions on who can be Speaker. It doesn’t even have to be a member of the House. By custom, it is always a member of the party in the majority. The real power for the Speaker is that he/she can decide what and when legislation will come up for a vote.

January give Obama the pulpit with the inauguration speech and the State of the Union speech. Obama threw down the gauntlet by declaring 1) he won’t let the debt ceiling turn into hostage negotiations and 2) he’s looking for a dollar in revenue for every dollar in cuts. This prompted Bitch McConnell to declare on Sunday that the GOP is finished with new taxes. Which is beautiful – in two events that will get widespread live prime-time coverage Obama can compare and contrast his balanced approach (revenue AND cuts) to the GOP threat of defaulting on the debt. And the GOP has declared their position PRIOR to the two speeches – which Obama can use to roll them with public opinion.

Romans always worried about ‘Barbarians being at the gate.’
HA!
That, tain’t nothin’!
Look at what we’ve got – Barbarian’s, and Vandal’s, and Visigoth’s, and Anarchist’s, and Nihilist’s, and Secessionist’s, and political Terrorist’s.
And where where’ve we got ’em?
IN THE HOUSE!
And the Senate.
And the Federal Courts.
And Governorship’s.
And State Legislatures.
And State Courts.
And, in the MSM, as pundits, to provide cover for all of the looting and sacking.

And, while another self-made Recession/Depression will destroy the lives of still more millions of people in this country, and the world, the Republican Army of Moron Zombies, will conintinue to whistle while they cluelessly stumble past the graveyard of their own creation, looking for more brains to eat, since they apparently ‘et their own, a long, long, time ago. And that’s if they ever had them in the first place – and there’s precious little evidence to show that they ever did.

They’re vandals. Some people just want to wreck stuff because they’re mad at the world.

MikeG, I disagree. I think the problems is that they’ve been listening to the Limbaugh/Gingrich rules for so long that they have internalized them.

They hear that low taxes, deregulation, religious imposition, and so forth, are not just right, but obviously right and there’s no leadership to call out “hey, come on guys, that was a great campaign slogan, but we’re trying to run a country now!”

They hear that liberals are not just wrong, but obviously wrong and evil and damaging to family and God and the economy, and so forth, and there’s no leadership (again) to point out “hey, guys, great campaign slogan, let’s run the country now.”

The people who came of political age in 1994 are the people who are now running for Congress, and they’ve been fed a steady diet of pure, unadulterated bullshit.

There have been a huge number of issues where people should have stood up and showed leadership, and they have, as a whole, refused to do so. (Some have, and now they’re outcasts. Scary thought, isn’t it?) The overall goal of painting liberals as bad guys has been too helpful and lucrative. And really, they’ve painted themselves into a big, ugly corner. (It’s a shame we can’t just tell them they have to stand there until they’re ready to act like grown ups.)

First, these members are young and inexperienced. Two thirds of the 67 Republicans who voted against paying insurance claims from Sandy were elected in either 2010 or 2012 (43 out of 67).

Second, quite a few are pawns of the Koch Brothers and their “movements” (Freedom Works, Americans for Prosperity). The Republican Party in Kansas and Wisconsin is a wholly owned subsidiary of Koch Industries and Michigan is heading in that direction.

Third, the logical alternative to the Boehner/Tea Bag cat fight is a combination of the Democrats and the few sane Republicans (call them the Hurricane Caucus) located in NY, NJ, and FL. Make Peter King the Speaker and have half of the committees chaired by Democrats. Not great but much better than what we have. This arrangement takes place in town and city and state legislatures on a fairly common basis. The result is that government gets done.

Fourth, the re-districting election (in this case 2010) was more important than the Presidential election. Look at the number of Democrats with 70% + districts and the number of Republicans in the 55% to 59% sweet spot. Gerrymandering is the routine in Republican run states, even those like NJ, MI, and WI that routinely vote for Democrats in the Presidential elections (6 of the last 6 is routine).

These guys fear a Koch funded primary more than the actual general election because the general elections are rigged.